A businessman who received millions of dollars for his work on Tokyo's successful campaign to host the 2020 Olympics said he played a key role in securing the support of a former Olympics powerbroker suspected by French prosecutors of taking bribes to help Japan's bid.
Haruyuki Takahashi, a former advertising agency executive, was paid US$8.2 million (HK$63.96 million) by the committee that spearheaded Tokyo's bid for the 2020 Games, according to financial records. Takahashi said his work included lobbying International Olympic Committee members like Lamine Diack and that he gave Diack gifts, including digital cameras and a Seiko watch.
The payments made Takahashi the single largest recipient of money from the Tokyo bid committee. After his involvement in the successful campaign, Takahashi was named to the board of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee.
Takahashi acknowledged receiving the payments but declined to give a full accounting of how he used the money. He said he urged Diack to support the Tokyo bid and denied any impropriety in those dealings. He said it was normal to provide gifts as a way of currying good relations with important officials.
Banking records from the Tokyo 2020 bid committee show it paid around US$46,500 to Seiko Watch. A senior bid official said "good" watches were handed out at parties organized as part of the campaign to win the Olympics.
International Olympic Committee regulations allowed for the giving of gifts of nominal value at the time of the 2020 bid, but didn't stipulate a specific amount.
A day before the 2013 vote on the host city, Diack informed a meeting of African Olympic representatives that he planned to support Tokyo on merit, a lawyer for Diack said, adding that he didn't instruct anyone how to vote.
The Tokyo bid committee also paid US$1.3 million to a non-profit institute run by former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, the head of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee.
The payments to Takahashi's company and Mori's non-profit are enumerated in banking records from the Tokyo 2020 bid committee.
The records were provided to French prosecutors by Japan's government as part of France's investigation into whether Tokyo's bid committee paid US$2.3 million through a Singaporean consultant to win Diack's support for Japan to host the 2020 Games.
Diack, 86, has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
Nobumoto Higuchi, the bid committee's secretary general, said Takahashi earned commissions on the corporate sponsorships he collected for the bid.
Businessman Haruyuki Takahashi denies impropriety in his dealings with former Olympics powerbroker Lamine Diack. AP, AFP
